Political Participation in the Kibera Informal Settlement in Nairobi, Kenya

Sammanfattning: This paper attempts to expose the factors influencing political participation in the Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. To this end, an extensive survey was carried out in three of the five political wards in Kibera. Prior comparative studies of political participation have reached the somewhat simplistic conclusion that poor citizens are a politically inactive group in society. A handful of studies have, however, inquired the nuances of participation within that group. In stark contrast to the traditional literature, they find least financially well-off respondents to be the more active ones, and that participation is chiefly driven by encounters with local representatives. While the indicators correlating with voting in Kibera align with socioeconomic factors described in traditional theories, the regression analysis reveals a similar pattern of political participation (other than voting) and encounters with local politicians. Moreover, group membership is strongly correlated with both voting and other political activities in the sample.